Well searchers still days from reaching bottom

LINDEN - FBI agents determined Thursday that a Linden well believed to hold the remains of murder victims buried there decades ago by Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog is 200 feet deep.

The Record

LINDEN - FBI agents determined Thursday that a Linden well believed to hold the remains of murder victims buried there decades ago by Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog is 200 feet deep.

Initial surveying led them to believe the well's bottom was 50 feet down, FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said in a news release at the end of the team's fourth day of preparation of the well for excavation.

While much deeper, the bottom of the well also is filled with water, so agents said they will next bring in specialized pumps to drain the water before trying to send a camera down and inspect what lies at the bottom.

Draining it may take days, Swankie said.

The work that began Monday on Flood Road marks a second effort to recover murder victims of Shermantine and Herzog, two men who grew up in Linden and were arrested in 1999, putting an end to their 15-year killing spree.

Herzog, paroled in 2010, hanged himself one year ago, about the same time Shermantine began revealing where the victims were buried.

Shermantine remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Guided by Shermantine's tips, investigators from the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office found the remains of three women and a fetus nearly one year ago, in a well near the one now being excavated.

Two other victims were found buried in Calaveras County.

The FBI has since taken over the recovery effort and in August took Shermantine out of prison to help identify the current dig site, which may hold one or more murdered remains. The killing duo is believed to have murdered 19 people.